Death, fraud in LI schools

After two children were crushed to death and other students and teachers were seriously injured by motorized partitions in school gymnasiums, the owners of a Long Island contracting firm went on a crusade to have area school districts comply with state-mandated safety inspections.

But Kathy and Stephen Cole, owners of Great River-based Gym Door Repair, were met with resistance from local and state education administrators, some of whom have blacklisted their company – costing them some $5 million in business, while a competitor wins bids and plays fast and loose with the law.

Aside from the financial impact, an investigation by Gym Door Repair suggests children’s lives may still be endangered. Company staff found that several gym-partition safety devices in area schools have been bypassed, badly wired or otherwise rendered inoperable; many systems have gone uninspected and there’s been no staff training, as required by law, in many of the schools they visited.

But for complaining about this to elected officials, Gym Door Repair earned the wrath of local and state education administrators – some of whom, according to the Coles, vowed to never again hire the company.

And when the Coles forced the issue, they uncovered widespread abuses of school bidding and contracting systems – systemic fraud that’s costing taxpayers millions.

Deadly history

Stephen and Kathy Cole

The Cole family has intimate knowledge of school-gym partitions.

Founded in 1976 by Stephen’s father, former union carpenter Fred Cole, Gym Door Repair performed many of the installations of the folding partitions currently in the New York City school system. Eventually, the company branched out to bleachers and basketball backboards.

After a New Jersey 12-year-old was killed by a motorized gym partition, Stephen Cole invented a safety device called Safe Path, which stops the wall when objects are detected in its path. The system was refined and patented in 1991 after the death of 9-year-old Deanna Moon, who was crushed by a moving wall inside a Melville elementary school.

After that accident, New York legislators proposed new motorized-wall laws requiring safety systems, signage and staff training at every school, but only the training and signage provisions became law in 1992. Then, in January 2001, despite posted warning signs, 12-year-old Rashad Richardson was crushed to death by a motorized wall inside an Ithaca middle school. According to the Ithaca Journal, a teacher defeated the safety mechanism by rigging a keychain to hold a spring-loaded switch in the “on” position.

The state Legislature subsequently enacted a strengthened version of the earlier law, this time requiring the installation of a Safe Path-like safety device. Lawmakers also mandated annual inspections and maintenance protocols specific to manufacturers’ instructions, and appropriated $26 million to assist districts with associated costs.

‘Rat’ trap

Despite that assistance, Kathy Cole complained in October 2009 to Carl Thurnau, the New York State Education Department’s director of facilities and planning, that his department hadn’t done enough to help school districts comply with the state regulations. His response, she said, was chilling.

“He called me a rat and told me to stop poking my nose where it didn’t belong,” Cole said, adding the facilities director threatened to “put me out of business.”

Thurnau, who oversees the Education Department’s current $2.84 billion buildings and grounds budget, didn’t respond to several requests for comment.

After that alleged threat, later in 2009, Hauppauge-based Young Equipment Sales, a rival of Gym Door Repair, was awarded work Gym Door Repair had been doing in multiple Nassau County schools. Soon, most Suffolk County school districts also gave YES contracts to inspect and repair gym partitions and related safety systems.

Then, in January 2011, all of Gym Door Repair’s purchase orders with New York City schools were cancelled, about $300,000 worth of business; Kathy Cole claims she was told by a New York City Board of Education official that YES would get the partition work instead, and that the official specifically cited Cole’s complaints to the Legislature.

“They shut us out of everything,” she said.

Tales of the tapes

Fred Koelbel, president of the New York State Association for Superintendents of Buildings and Grounds and plant facilities administrator for Port Jefferson schools, spelled out why the Coles’ company was blacklisted in a February 2011 conversation taped by a Gym Door Repair employee.

“I told you that I’m just not interested in doing work with Gym Door Repair,” Koelbel says on the tape, provided to LIBN by the Coles. “I’m working with other vendors … I think your tactics are aggressive and misleading … and the lengths you went to caused a lot of trouble within our industry … You don’t think contacting the Assembly members, the governor’s office and others and saying these schools are not in compliance with the law is aggressive?”

Another taped conversation – this from April 2011, between Gym Door Repair and an official with Eastern Suffolk BOCES – indicated the blacklisting was widespread among the cooperative purchasing agency’s 66 member districts.

Joe Hendrickson, director of facilities and transportation for the Bellmore School District and head of a Nassau County schools cooperative that 57 districts use to select their vendors, later told a Gym Door Repair employee that he couldn’t use the company even if he wanted to. During a conversation recorded in November 2013, Hendrickson says, “He (Stephen Cole) came over to meet with me once, and that’s when they were sending all those emails to the superintendents, and I said you are taking blood, man … When you send something up that triggers state ed to send out to every freakin’ superintendent … that caused Carl Thurnau up there to realize he’s got a roaring forest fire here.”

Dark discoveries

After being rebuffed in Albany, the Coles attempted to force school officials to abide by the gym-partition safety laws in court. But in November 2012, the New York Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Coles against the state Education Department and the New York City Department of Education, citing a technicality: The Coles had no standing to bring the suit.

The state Legislature has passed lawsrequiring the installation of a Safe Path-like safety device in school gymnasiums.

Attorney Eric Su of Manhattan-based law firm Ogletree Deakins, who represents the Coles, said based on that ruling, school facilities managers statewide have been able to escape scrutiny on procedural grounds, with the courts making no determinations on the allegations’ merits.

“The rampant failure and irresponsible refusal by these state and city bureaucrats to comply with statutory and regulatory life-and-safety mandates remains unabated,” Su said via email. “It is clear the state and the city prefer their current ‘head in the sand dune’ approach: continue with their noncompliant ways and ignore the life-and-safety hazards that exist in our schools until another child or teacher gets seriously hurt.

“The taxpayers deserve more than that from these school officials,” Su added.

Frustrated and angered over losing most of their school-based business, the Coles have unleashed a blizzard of Freedom of Information Act requests over the last few months – and made some unsettling discoveries about school purchasing habits.

Among other things, they found Long Island school districts have routinely ignored prevailing wage laws and circumvented the competitive bidding process, in some cases paying much more for services than they had to.

Among the alleged infractions: After Eastern Suffolk BOCES failed to award a contract for inspecting and maintaining gym-partition safety walls, instead leaving individual school districts to do it, many districts didn’t put that work out to bid, but instead gave it to Young Equipment Sales based on an unrelated BOCES furniture bid.

For instance, YES installed a gym-partition safety device at the Patchogue School District’s Tremont Elementary School in August 2011, work it was awarded based on a separate BOCES bid to provide furniture. YES also provided the school district with a pricelist purported to be from Kwik Wall, a Springfield, Ill.-based partition manufacturer; the list included prices for control panels and sensors that Kwik Wall does not actually produce.

Kwik Wall refused to comment to LIBN. But in an email to the Coles, which was shared with LIBN, company executive Ty Lakin noted Kwik Wall actually subcontracts for those control panels and sensors and therefore has no such pricelist.

Also included on the YES-provided pricelist: partition safety devices at $7,995 apiece, over $6,500 more than the $1,468 Gym Door Repair charges for its Safe Path device.

YES also used that same BOCES furniture bid to secure about $200,000 worth of locker-painting work in the Sayville School District. Part of the firm’s billing for that work included a materials pricelist from supplier Cy Young Industries of Lenexa, Kan., according to copies of purchase orders provided to LIBN by Gym Door Repair.

However, Cy Young President Nancy Young (no relation to YES) told LIBN her company doesn’t publish pricelists because each job is unique. And her company isn’t involved in locker painting at all, adding she has no idea where the pricelist including her firm’s name originated.

More disturbing allegations

When the allegedly falsified YES paperwork was brought to his attention, Sayville Assistant Superintendent John Belmonte blamed the contractor.

“We were led to believe by Young Equipment that Cy Young provides locker painting,” Belmonte said. “This is very disturbing.”

Belmonte said he thought BOCES would have done enough due diligence on its vendors to prevent bid awards from being compromised. BOCES attorney Gregory Guercio of Farmingdale-based Guercio & Guercio countered by noting it’s not the agency’s job to police how component school districts allow misuse of cooperative bids.

“That’s an issue for that local school district,” Guercio said. “It’s not an Eastern Suffolk BOCES issue.”

However, in April 2013, BOCES sent a letter to all of its member superintendents advising them to “take all necessary steps to insure that the product or service being obtained is covered by the particular bid in question.”

The Coles’ FOIA requests also uncovered dozens of other alleged violations of state labor laws by YES and its subcontractors. School districts, for instance, are required to obtain certified payrolls for most work done inside their buildings and on their grounds, to ensure that contractors’ employees are paid the mandated prevailing wage; but many Long Island districts – including Garden City, Westbury, Locust Valley, Bellmore, Roosevelt, Lindenhurst and Patchogue – didn’t have payrolls for electrical, carpentry and other services provided by YES.

And on several certified payrolls provided by YES to regional school districts, pay rates are well below prevailing-wage rates – and actual hours worked don’t match what the districts were quoted and billed for.

In one particular case, Sayville schools were billed for 20 hours at $190 an hour for a two-day bleacher repair job in December 2011, according to documents provided by the Coles. But certified payrolls the Sayville district possesses for this purchase order show that YES employees on that job were actually paid $71.12 an hour for three hours, $60.78 an hour for five hours, $25 an hour for six hours, $15 an hour for 2.5 hours and $10 an hour for 3.5 hours – a total labor cost of $739.76, less than a third of the $2,250 the district was actually billed.

In Massapequa schools, certified payrolls show YES employees were paid $25 and $15 an hour for electrical maintenance work during inspections and repairs of the district’s gyms in July and August of 2012; prevailing wages for this type of electrical work in Nassau are $79.21 an hour, according to the New York Department of Labor.

“To me, it looks fishy,” said John Guadagno, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 25 in Hauppauge. “There are too many different rates and the school districts didn’t keep payrolls. It’s not right.”

LISTEN: A former Gym Door Repair employee and Andy Ward, president of the Nassau County Superintendents of Buildings and Grounds, in November 2013 talk about how YES allegedly used untrained day laborers the company picked up in front of the Home Depot in Freeport to work on gym equipment in Long Island schools.

When asked to explain the apparent payroll discrepancies and questionable pricelists used to secure some of his company’s work, YES CEO Richard Young declined to comment.

“We believe these issues are based in another business’ attempt to further its private business interests through use of the media,” Young wrote in an email to LIBN.

The stealing business

After years of whistle-blowing by the Coles, some governmental agencies are now taking action. The Nassau and Suffolk district attorneys have launched joint investigations with the state Labor Department into Long Island school districts’ procurement practices and whether the contractors they use pay proper prevailing wages for projects in area schools.

Taxpayer advocate Andrea Vecchio of East Islip Tax PAC, who also serves on the executive board of Long Islanders for Educational Reform, said the alleged abuses uncovered by the Coles are “absolutely commonplace” and largely go unchecked because education is a political sacred cow.

Andrew Coccari, who spent 35 years as an athletic director at various Long Island schools and now works with his son’s company, Babylon-based Long Island Gymnasium Equipment, agreed that “rank-and-file fraud” runs rampant when it comes to school-work bids.

“If you really want to get into stealing, get into education,” Coccari said. “Nobody will bother you.”

15 comments

This is the tip of the iceberg. Still we vote for budget increases every year because they tell us they will have to end after school programs, cut sports, cut music , cut field trips etc. Cut the fraud and kick backs! It seems no matter how much we spend it is never enough. Then our children can’t pass the core curriculum test. So get rid of the test. NO, get some people who can teach. Don’t pass struggling kids. Get them extra help and help them succeed. Reform the whole system. Throw the thieves out.

Have to say, I really agree with you Terrance. Teachers salaries are negotiated first, then the school budget is voted on. I am tired of hearing “It’s for the children”. Well if it is for the children as claimed, then why are they doing so poorly? Costs go up, proficiency goes down, what gives?

Did anyone read this. “In Massapequa schools, certified payrolls show YES employees were paid $25 and $15 an hour for electrical maintenance work during inspections and repairs of the district’s gyms in July and August of 2012; prevailing wages for this type of electrical work in Nassau are $79.21 an hour, according to the New York Department of Labor.”

I do not make $79.21 per hour. Are are supposed to feel bad that the district was charged too little for labor????
Is this a joke???

Maybe just stupid me, but these doors are controlled by people who push the button to open and close. Right? Well, why aren’t they watching where the children are playing? One teacher put a stopper on the automatic closure device and the child was killed…!!! Please give us a break. These devices are huge and powerful and morons cannot be allowed to go near them. I applaude Coles’ whistleblowing endeavors but you see where that got them…out!

Thank you LIBN for bringing this to our attention. I bought some lockers for my business from YES and now I am sorry i gave them any business. But until people make a really big deal about this and not just talk about it at cocktail parties, the problem will go on. People need to flood the offices of their local politicians with letters saying they are watching what will be done about this and vote in the election accordingly. We are all so busy in our lives, most won’t take the time to even do that. Gym Door Repair – thanks for doing the right thing and putting your necks on the line. Maybe on your website you can publish the emails or physical addresses of all the politicians who need to be warned we’re watching them. Maybe the response from LIBN readers will be better than you think.

I want to clarify something, Clare Kall is under the assumption that the district was charged the reduced rate for the technician. The district was charged the same rate for bot payrolls and the difference was pocketed by Young.

The law requires technicians to be paid at the prevailing rate of pay for the trade that they are performing, Young charges the district for the higher rate yet pays the technicians at the lower, the difference goes in his pocket, believe me the district got no break on this $30,000 purchase order they were overcharged at least $15,000.

After witnessing their daughter linger in a coma for a week before she died, Deanna Moon’s parents were not furious and resentful. But did feel it was necessary to bring a civil action against the school district so more parents would not have to go through their ultimate pain.

As far as I know, there was no financial award that would have made the district, the county and the state pay attention. The gym teacher was suspended WITH pay, then I understand reinstated the next semester. It is chilling to hear that the exact act has been repeated with, again no draconian settlement that would be a lesson to taxpayers not to hire murderers. (Deeana’s case could be termed an accident, but the same events repeated is callous murder.)

Now LIBN is uncovering possible fraud and certainly malfeasance. I hope they follow the money to who influenced our state and local government to let this repeat. Somebody in this whole game is working both sides of this — a second time without massive civil and financial penalties is unconscionable! Some tentacles are winding behind all of this — not sure it is the Governor, we have had both political parties in the twenty years since Deeana’s death. I wouldn’t think there is school board collusion — we change district superintendents like some change their underwear.

But somebody is helping the at best “man-slaughterers” (more like child killers) get away with this!